Sep 2, 2010

Moyra Davey, Copperhead No. 1Pennies are worthless--worse than that, actually, since they in fact cost more to make than they are worth. I now try to get rid of them as soon as I can, but I've decided to extract some last value from the little buggers before they go: I look at the year they were made and try to conjure a memory from that year before I set aside the penny (always on a level surface, like a windowsill or a payphone top, and not on the ground). If I get a year that precedes my birth (not that often, but it happens), I think of what my parents were doing then, and of anything historical or cultural I can think of from that year. I get a lot of duplicate years, which means I have to rifle deeper, and sometimes longer, in my recollections. I must say, it's been a rewarding exercise, these shiny little beacons of reflection in my hectic days. They almost feel like prayer.

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is Editor-in-Chief of American Theatre magazine. He has written features and criticism for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Variety, Newsday, Village Voice, Time Out NY, The Guardian, and The San Francisco Chronicle, among others. He was the founding editor of Back Stage West.